City Council defers Northwest Peoria land-use changes, again

PEORIA — No need to warm up the bus. The fate of Frye Crossing Apartments won’t be decided for at least another three weeks or so.

Neither will the creation of taxing bodies to help pay for the Louisville Slugger Sports Complex.

During its meeting Tuesday night, the City Council again deferred action regarding land-use changes that would allow for construction of five three-story apartment buildings in Northwest Peoria. It’s the fifth time the issue has been deferred.

Developers and nearby residents opposed to the complex have been seeking a compromise.

Following that deferral, the Louisville Slugger taxing question was tabled. That issue had been deferred three times.

Legalities that involve the land-sale deadline for the project will require the Louisville Slugger case to be heard in front of the Planning and Zoning Commission next month, according to 5th District Councilman Casey Johnson.

“Rather than leave any opportunities open to cause problems in the future, it was easier just to have them come back through the process,” said Johnson, who represents areas in which both delayed projects are situated.

Frye Crossing and Louisville Slugger are planned for vacant land near The Shoppes at Grand Prairie. The apartments are to be located just south of the shopping center. The youth baseball and softball facility is to be located just northwest of it.

An unusual site for the council meeting — Valeska Hinton Early Childhood Education Center, just west of Downtown — led to an unusual sight in front of the meeting place.

About 40 residents of the Liberty Village senior-citizens community arrived aboard a Peoria Charter Coach Co. bus. Almost all of them wore signs that stated “Please Vote NO,” in regard to the Frye Crossing issue.

Many of them grumbled after Johnson announced the deferral until Aug. 12. The delay this time, he said, was because of an internal discrepancy regarding how the land sale was to proceed among the project’s prospective owners.

Johnson said he learned about their deferral request at 4:05 p.m., about two hours before the meeting began. By then, it was too late to turn back the bus.

“These folks have been on a roller coaster,” at-large Councilman Chuck Weaver said about the Liberty Village residents.

They also spent between $400 and $600 on bus rental, according to sources.

“We wasted money,” said Marilyn Fauser, the Liberty Village property manager. “When we pull up in a bus, and then they tell use it’s deferred, that’s a little bit out of the realm.”

Fauser and others affiliated with Liberty Village said their main objection is to an apartment building planned for the southernmost portion of the vacant parcel. It is adjacent to Bobbette Pickell’s residence.

“Can you really look me in the eye and tell me a three-story apartment building looming over my back porch is better than an office building?” Pickell said to the council in reference to how the land is planned currently. “Can you look me in the eye if I were your mother and tell me it’s a great idea?”

When the project was proposed, Pickell’s objection was not presented as part of a necessary compromise, Johnson said. Pickell doesn’t appear willing to bend.

“We may be old, but we’re not dead yet,” she said. “We’re going to fight.”

Also far from dead, but perhaps not as energetic as it could be, is the Louisville Slugger project.

The land sale to the project developers, for $3,033,000, took place earlier this month. But it came after a June 30 deadline. Some case law supported an extension, but all parties decided to be better safe than sorry, according to Johnson.

A council vote regarding the special taxing areas that include Petersen Hotels properties near the proposed bat-and-ball diamonds can take place once the Planning and Zoning Commission hears the case. It’s on the agenda for that group’s meeting Aug. 7.

“It leaves it a little more open-ended rather than just popping it on the agenda each time,” Johnson said about the decision to table instead of defer.

Earlier this year, the project received strong support from land-use commissions that considered it.

Nick Vlahos can be reached at 686-3285 or nvlahos@pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @VlahosNick.